Our first full day here, quiet and relaxing....

Our Location: Quail Ridge Rv Resort, Huachuca City, Arizona

 

A nice night for sleeping with the vents open, one of these nights I'm certain we'll leave the windows open too. Maybe tonight. 

 

Heading into Sierra Vista, Arizona

 

I slept later than usual, not waking until 7 am. I think the higher day time temps may be tougher on us than we think. Riley didn't start moving around until I was making noise in the living room around 8:15 am. She tried to tell me she'd been awake for a while but I could hear her snoring. Or at least I told her I could. 

 

I love those long tall trees....

 

We were debating about what to do today. We had some plans but in the end decided we'd feel better with just doing some looking around and getting some groceries. 

 

Nice view, huh?

 

We climbed into the Dogsled and headed for Huachuca City but ended up slipping on down into Sierra Vista. A nice little town with plenty of shopping and a LOT of restaurants. We found the Safeway, took a spin around but didn't find any good prices or deals. The store seemed cold to us, even though we had sweaters on to combat the A/C. It was a nice clean store, big, spacious aisles, well stocked but it wasn't a fit for us. We moved on to Fry's Grocery a bit further down the way. There we grabbed a cart and started our shopping. We found some pretty good prices but you really had to watch as some things were quite a bit more expensive than we've been paying at Walmart. The store was well stocked, clean, and spacious as well. We will go back again for certain. 

 

The look of this building appeals to me, very southwestern.

 

We drove off to find the Walmart, looked for a few clothing items but found only a couple of things for Riley. Hard to believe they don't have any capri's, shorts, and t'shirts out, instead it's long sleeved sweaters, knit sweaters, long pants in varying material and believe it or not, fleece one piece PJ's for adults. We did manage to finish up our grocery list. We shouldn't need groceries for a week or more now. Believe it or not, they all fit in the fridge too. 

 

On the way home from Sierra Vista

 

 We enjoyed the drive, and since it's Sunday there was no construction going on, just the pylons and etc. The drive was short, scenic and fun. We noticed a few interesting things along the way, including our first Segundo Cactus right in Huachuca City at the site of the historical plaque of Fort Huachuca. We of course had to stop and get a picture of this cactus. 

 

No workers present today...

 

Back home I made a couple of green salads, and doctored up the spaghetti sauce in the jar. I also made cheese garlic bread. While outside eating my salad, Riley cooked the spaghetti and that was lunch. Sorry, no pics, I forgot.

 

 

Since Riley was finding the heat a bit much I sent her outside where it was much cooler in the shade of our awning and I cleaned up inside. Bringing Riley some water, her hat along with my own water, hat and book we both settled down to read for a bit. She felt better after a while and we enjoyed some watermelon outside in the shade. 

 

 

A short walk around the other side of the park when the temps started falling and we returned home to finish up the rest of the day in the comfort of our awing. The outside temps reached a bit higher than yesterday I think, I think the thermometer  reached 85F/29.4C during the afternoon today. It was cooler outside than in side. 

Love this purple coloured cactus

 

I sat outside for a while editing pics and when the temps started dropping rapidly I came inside to finish up. We've closed up most of the windows and will close the rest just before going to bed. Think we'll leave the vents open tonight though.

 

Wonder what Santa is sitting on?

 

So that was our first full day here in Quail Ridge. A nice quiet day, relaxing and warm. We'll take it. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to leave a comment. 

 

Stunning view.

 

Until next time...Take care, be safe, 

 

 

Our first Segundo Cactus

Deb

New park, new state, new people....

Our Location: Quail Ridge RV Park, Huachuca City, Arizona

Our condolences go to Gary Duggan and his family in the passing of his mother Bernice yesterday in Ontario, Canada. 

My day started about 5:30 am today. Reading blogs and checking facebook. A couple of notes to my sister and then I will be up and starting to pack up my bedroom and bathroom. Today is moving day. We're heading into another new state today. Arizona!! This is where we will spend our winter months. Other than a  side trip to Palm Desert, California to visit with my sister in law Janet and her hubby Dennis. We stayed on their farm in Roseneath, Ontario for a couple of weeks earlier this fall. They flew out of Toronto on Nov 11 and have been enjoying the golf course every day since.

Electric cars plug in here...

We were packed up, hooked up and pulling out of City of Rocks State Park at 8:20 am this morning. A drive to Deming to the Valero Fuel Stop and their free rv dump station. We also topped off our fuel tanks while there. A great spot to stop, easy in and out. Big parking areas, lots of space to get around. Separate RV island with gas and diesel. The dump station was free. Diesel was a bit on the high side but we noticed higher on our drive today. It was $3.04 at the Valero this morning, and we noticed a high of $3.13 during our travels today. I don't recall where it was though. An interesting feature at this location is 8 spots to plug in electric cars. I've never seen them before, and to have 8 in a row seemed very innovative with an eye to customer needs. 

I kept looking but didn't see anything.

After our stop there we proceeded on to I-10 West bound which is the main road we travelled today. Beautiful scenery was available out almost every window almost all the time. We enjoyed the long lazy drive today, only 155 miles. We stopped at pretty much each rest stop and enjoyed a few minutes out of the Dogsled.

Those hazy mountains are where we're heading.

It was 10:11 am when we crossed the Continental Divide. I happened to look at the clock so that's how I know. There wasn't much to it, just an imaginary line on the roadway. Still  it was a milestone for us. 

They even tell you what to do if you get caught in a dust storm.

We crossed into Arizona shortly after, pulling into the first rest area we found new to us signs indicating rattlesnakes and poisonous insects. I can tell you I kept looking around but didn't see anything. Love the rest stops here, they are so spacious and inviting. Lots of areas for picnic lunches and exercise for both human and four legged folks. NO grass. Still interesting though. 

The dark at the front is rail road tracks.

Our second rest stop in Arizona had a very unique type of view, a wall of rocks behind the rest area buildings gave one a feeling of being very small. The rocks rose a number of feet dwarfing everything around us. Across I-10 on the east bound lanes the view was just as spectacular. A great choice for a stopping area. Lots of folks taking pictures in this location. It's just a few miles from Benson, Arizona. 

Our first rest stop of the day.

Following the signs for Huachuca City we headed southward. More picturesque views along the way as well. Not a far drive, a very pleasant jaunt closer to the Mexican border. 

We've arrived in Arizona

We arrived at Quail Ridge RV Park about 1:30 pm. A stop at the office we met a fella named Kurt or Kurk who was also checking in, he is from Kincardine, Ontario. He even knew where Manitoulin Island was!! It is a small world!!

Love the rocks!

We checked in, pulled around the end of the clubhouse looking for spot 137. We found it, second from the end and pulled in without any difficulties. We set up house and hooked up our necessaries, and managed to get everything put back where it should be all by a bit before 2:30 pm. 

The Dogsled wasn't even panting in this heat.

Lunch, we were hungry, as we had only had a small snack in the Dogsled and no breakfast. We never seem to eat breakfast on travel days. Instead we have granola bars, or small biscuits to settle the stomach and around 10 am, coffee time, we have another little snack. That will usually hold us over until lunch.

His hideout in the Dragoon Mountains.

I called my dad before we started prepping lunch. Wanted him to know we've arrived safe and sound. He was happy to hear from us. The deer hunt is over or just about over on Manitoulin Island. The four hunters, Dad, my brother Rick, and his two sons Jason and Jesse netted two deer this year. Jason got himself a nice doe, while Dad shot himself a buck. Actually it was more like half a buck, only had one horn. I asked if it was old, perhaps came out and said 'Shoot me please!' He assured me that wasn't the case. 
 

Arizona Rest Stop

Lunch was a quick affair today. A nice big green salad and a chicken taco seemed to just hit the spot for us. Easy to prepare, easy to cook, and easy to clean up afterwards.  

Leaving the rest stop, heading west on I-10

 

   Clean up finished we headed outside to read in the shade. The temps when we arrived today read 81F /27.2C for those Canuckies back home. With beautiful blue skies who could ask for anything more? Not us, we're are loving it. 

Extremely beautiful. 

Around about sunset time we grabbed the camera and walked around our area of the park trying to catch a few pictures for tonight's blog. Love some of the huge plants here, they're bigger than me. We stopped in to check out the laundry, $1.25 a load for washing, and I didn't look at the dryer as I'm certain it will be very reasonable too. They take credit cards here in the laundry room. How cool is that? We also checked out the clubhouse. Nice area. The nice lady at the check in desk told us we can have full use of the full kitchen in the clubhouse and the poolroom building. If you don't want to use your propane to cook your food, you can pop it in the oven in the clubhouse at no charge. Pretty nice of them. From there we headed off around the park and back home. Close to the road but still pretty nice here. 

Love the colours on this plant. See the picnic table, this thing is huge.

Back at the Igloo we left the camera behind and headed two spots over to introduce ourselves to George and Suzie (Our Awesome Travels). Extremely nice, helpful people, we look forward to visiting them a time or two while here in the park. I've followed their blog for a number of years and have enjoyed reading about their journey's. They were extremely nice offering up tips and advice. We very much appreciate it. Nice meeting you George and Suzie!!

Sun sinking quickly.

Back home, I called my sister for a quick chat and catch up. My sister is very crafty and has been doing a new hobby for her, book folding. She's very good at it and has been taking orders and selling her goods for the past number of months. She is currently making the rounds of the small communities fall craft shows. She completed one today and has two more in the up coming weeks. Seems like she is doing well. My sister got the crafty gene from our mother who could knit, crochet, quilt, and garden. My sister also paints, makes hand made leather mittens, and gloves, and does a number of other crafts as well. Me? Not so much. I walk down the craft aisle at Walmart and that is the extent of my craftiness. Glad you're enjoying your new hobby sister dearest! 

Slipping down....

After hanging up from chatting with sister Jan I started editing pictures. We took 215 pictures today and I whittled them down to 51. Don't worry I'm  not going to post them all on here. Finishing those up I opened up blogger and continued on my post.

More pinks to the east in the mountains.

That was our day, a great one in my humble opinion. Seen a lot of new country side, passed into another new state, met new people, and managed to keep the Dogsled between the lines and the Igloo behind the Dogsled. It was a winner of a day!

Mountains to the East of Quail Ridge Rv Park at sunset

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. 

Until next time....take care, be safe, 

Deb

Our last post from City of Rocks State Park........

Our Location: City of Rocks State Park, Faywood, NM

The morning dawned with a beautiful sunrise but I didn’t get any pictures I was still reading blogs when it started peeking it’s beautiful rays over the tops of the mountains in the east. The night was coolish but not cold, I even had my vent partly open, so you know it wasn’t cold. 

Our patio before packing up

 

Since we had no plans today we didn’t really have any rush to get up and move around. We spent a lazy morning just chatting, reading and figuring out our plans for the day. We both knew we wouldn’t be going anywhere  so it was a matter of what we wanted to accomplish here at the Igloo. 

 

Our patio after packing up

 

After a morning cup of Swiss Mocha Sugar Free hot chocolate I started getting a bit antsy and headed for my room intending to clean the bedside cabinets. They didn’t take long and I moved on to the closet, and the bathroom. Before long the vacuum came out and the entire Igloo was glistening with a spiffy new shine inside. Riley caught the cleaning bug and her room and half bath were also under the clean cloths. I finished the last the two vents and the inside of the windows as well. Nothing like having a nice clean house!

 

Love the pink hue in the east behind us in our site E

7

 

I started a book by John Saul called Manhattan Hunt Club this morning. I finished it shortly before the sun set tonight. It was pretty good. I've liked all of the books I’ve read so far by him, haven’t found a single stinker in the bunch.

 

The back of the Igloo

 

I think I may have had a few winks of shut eye on the couch this morning but I can’t remember. It’s a tough life folks!!

 

Back window of the Dogsled

 

Shortly after 1 pm we started prepping lunch. Today we had a nice green salad, with BBQ'ed ham steak, beans and mushrooms. I added a scoop of stuffing left from yesterday. I will say I enjoyed it very much. Riley must have as well since there wasn’t anything left on her plate either. Love that Weber, it does such a good job and with the wind we had today the wind break worked well too. 

 

A bit more than quarter I think. Not a cloud in the sky.

 

After lunch we cleaned up the kitchen once again and headed outside to put away the items we’ve pulled out the last few days. Lawn chairs, solar lights, BBQ, wind break, etc. We even dismantled the Mr Buddy heater and put the heater, hose and tank away as well. We’ve used it twice since we arrived here. 

Starting to set

 

Tomorrow we will have a few things such as the water hose, the electrical cord, and the blocks to put away and after hooking up we will once again be on the road. Our first stop will be Deming and the fuel station that allows free use of the dump station. After that we’ll find our way to I-10 West and head on out. We are both looking forward to pulling up our feet and moving on. It’s nice here but I don’t think we’ll be back to this park. It’s too far away from everything and no cell service. We like the park of course and think some of the boon docking spots would be very nice to have for a couple of days but we’ve both figured out we’d prefer to be somewhere else. 

 

 

A lazy afternoon was spent just relaxing, reading and hanging out. I walked down to the ranger station to get a better pic of the sunset but with only a clear blue sky today the sunset was a quick affair. 

 

So there you have it, our restful day. Hope you had an enjoyable day as well. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to leave a comment. 

 

Until next time….be safe, take care…

Deb

Happy Thanksgiving, state parks, and a nice hike.......

Our Location: City of Rocks State Park, Faywood, NM

Riley and I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day here in the USA. Plenty of food, plenty of laughter, good friends, loving family and a very good day!!!

Peter Cottontail not worried about Miss Kitty or me.

A coolish night but still nice for sleeping. We didn’t need our heater on this morning as the Igloo warmed up nicely with the sun shining in the windows. Since we really didn’t have any plans for today we kind of just puttered around for a bit. We did decide about 8:30 am or so that we would head out to see the other state parks in the area for the next time we stop in this neighbourhood. 

Leave me alone, I'm having breakfast.

Of course this meant we had to go to Deming. First we headed out to Rockhound State Park, and our way through noticed Walmart was open but not extremely busy. We didn’t stop but made note of that. A number of stores and fuel stations were open which surprised me, I thought it was a holiday.

Heading toward Rockhound and Stone Canyon State Parks

We journeyed out to Rockhound State Park, finding it easily and taking a short tour. A nice park to be certain. Although all walking would be up and down since it’s on a hill side. However still a nice place. We noted a few spots we’d fit into easily and the boon docking area looks pretty good as well. So we will keep that in mind for another time. 

Rockhound campground up on the left

From there we headed cross country to  Poncho Villa State Park. At first Bella our US GPS wouldn’t find the park but found Columbus. I figured we’d manage from there. A scenic drive out to the park, about 30 miles just a few miles from the Mexican border. We notice a few interesting sights on the way out but didn’t manage to get pictures of them. Oh well, perhaps another time. 

Southwest flavour here at Rockhound State Park

We arrived in Poncho Villa State Park and chatted with a nice ranger there. He gave us the information regarding the park, hook ups, prices, etc. A very nice park, if it were not quite so far out I think we would consider it. The sites are huge and the ground is very level. Some nice gardens there as well. It’s a big park, with lots of sites to choose from. Even some 50 amp spots. 

Leaving Rockhound State Park

Heading back to Deming we had to stop at the inspection station. The guard was officious and almost polite. He assumed we were US citizen while he was looking inside the Dogsled, when I answered, No Canadians, he immediately wanted to see our passports. I found this very odd. We hadn’t left the US, we weren’t even at the border crossing. He scolded me for not carrying my passport all the time while in the US. I offered up my drivers license and Riley’s health card, as both are picture ID. He eventually let us through. I don’t carry my passport with me when in the truck out for a day’s touring. If we had planned on crossing into Mexico then yes, we would have had it. His comment was that if we were within 25 miles of the border we should carry it. I didn’t argue but believe me I’ve travelled well within the 25 mile radius at many Ontario crossing and never once have I ever had to stop at an inspection station that far from the border. If we had crossed into Mexico we still would have had to pass through US customs to get back in the country which means I’ve already been vetted and accepted. So I wasn’t really sure what his purpose was so far from the border other than to check we had no illegal passengers. Yes I know the Mexican border is much different than the Canadian border but I still won’t be carrying my passport with me every where I go. I think that is just inviting trouble. I leave it locked in the safe until we need it for something such as crossing the border, going onto a military base, etc. However it’s better not argue with those folks and so I didn’t. 

Poncho Villa raided the town of Columbus, NM  not far from the Mexican border. This raid caused a reactionary force to enter Mexico after him but they failed in their mission returning back to the USA without him.

Back in Deming we found the Wally’s world and decided to brave the store. It wasn’t that busy actually. However they were getting ready for long lines later in the evening when their Black Friday sales starts. They had clothing racks and skids, etc all jammed here and there to make room for ‘customer lines at check out’ with arrows taped to the floor indicating which line should go to which cash register. We picked up our few groceries and headed out. We pulled up to a cashier and just started unloading, no wait, so you know it wasn’t busy.

Noticed a farmer working this field as we passed by on our way to Deming

Back in the Dogsled we headed home. Eager to get back for some lunch. As we pulled in we noticed a few turn overs in the park, some folks left, new folks moved in their spot and of course the boon docking spots have a big turn over every couple of days too. 

The top of Observation Hill

After putting away our few groceries, I prepped the lunch veggies and Riley prepared our green salad. Before long we were outside BBQ’ing mixed veggies with orange zest and a nice chicken breast with Hawaiin BBQ sauce. We enjoyed our books and salads waiting for the rest to cook on low heat. Inside we had also made up some stuffing and that was lunch. Salad, stuffing, mixed veggies and chicken breast. I topped mine off with a small pecan pie and Riley had a couple of small chocolate donuts she picked up at Wally’s today. 

We made it.

After cleaning up we packed our little backpack with a couple bottles of water, sun screen and the camera, grabbed our walking sticks and headed for the top of Observation Hill. It’s a mile hike each way. A very steep climb but the view is stunning from the top. We wandered along the hiking path taking our time as we climbed to the top resting only once. At the top we plopped ourselves on a bench to enjoy the view, some water and a wee rest. We opted for the road on the way down instead of the trail. It was a steep decent but we made it with no slipping or sliding, and Riley didn’t have to catch me even one time. I didn’t check the time before we left but I think we were gone about an hour. Not a fast walk but it was quite the climb. We did enjoy it very much though. 

Love the sun on the desert plants as it sets

Home again I started to edit pictures but headed out to catch the sunset instead. A number of rabbits in the area. One eating breakfast outside the Igloo window this morning had the cat and I fighting for a seat at the window, with different thoughts of course. Her thoughts were definitely …yum….breakfast and mine were…..oh how cute!! The little fella was a cotton tail and he wasn’t one bit concerned with our moving around or making noise. Tonight on my way to a good vantage point to see the sunset I noticed a number of cotton tails here and there along the way. I also managed to catch a Jack Rabbit on the run through the cactus garden tonight during the sunset. He almost looked like a kangaroo, he was moving right along with those long hind legs. 

Going down....

A pretty nice sunset tonight, not a lot of clouds but still a few caught the ‘fire’ of the sun. Home and in the door by 5:30 pm having finished with the sunset I have been editing pictures and writing this post since. 

Sinking fast...

So as you can see our day is about over and it was certainly an educational and enjoyable one. Once again, Happy Thanksgiving to all of our US friends and to those Canadians that are here celebrating as well. 

The cloud colour is also fading fast...

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. 

Taken while sitting in my chair at our spot

Until next time….be safe, take care..

The eastern sky is a beautiful hue.

Deb